CLEVELAND, Ohio – Let’s be honest: Spike Lee is the most divisive director working in Hollywood right now.

Much of it is his own doing. His confidence in his talent can come off as arrogance. His movies are confrontational, rather than subtle. And he’s never afraid to speak his mind on a subject most Americans steer clear of in public: race.

Your inclination whether to see his films or dismiss his work as racist propaganda largely depends on how you feel about him personally. But by skipping “BlacKkKlansman” — which is nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture — Lee’s detractors are missing out on a powerful film experience. Of the eight best picture nominees this year, it’s the one that will most resonate decades from now.

“BlacKkKlansman” is a film about identity — black, white, Jewish, cop, hero, villain. It’s based on the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black detective on the Colorado Springs, Colorado, police force. As an ambitious rookie in 1978, he curiously calls a local ad for the Ku Klux Klan, setting off an undercover operation that brings down the local branch and foils a deadly terror attack. Stallworth pretends to be white on the phone — even fooling the Klan’s grand wizard, David Duke — while his white colleague, Phillip “Flip” Zimmerman (Adam Driver), poses as Stallworth in person.

The film is part racial drama and part thriller, with just enough wry humor to keep things from getting morose. The language is unapologetically tough, and often hateful. There are love stories, but not the kind you’d expect.

“BlacKkKlansman” is Lee’s best work in years. You can feel his passion for telling this particular story, and his care in getting it right. He wants us to see those events in Colorado Springs 40 years ago not as history, but as a warning about America today.

Spoiler alert: Stallworth and his crew do in fact take down the local Klan, preventing a terrorist attack in the process. But rather than ending on a triumphant note, Lee closes his film with news images from the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Among the demonstrators: the real Duke, much older than his movie counterpart and no longer a grand wizard, but still spewing the same hatred he was decades ago.

The movie’s final shot is of a makeshift memorial to Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old counterprotester who was murdered that day in during a car attack. It feels like a gut punch. Despite how far we’ve come, we can’t ever fool ourselves into thinking the problem is solved yet. The battle against hate continues.

It’s the perfect ending to a powerful, thoughtful film that deserves to take home the top prize on Sunday night.